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Intentional Leadership — D5, W1, M8 — Change

Good morning, and Happy Friday! Thank you for being here, reading my thoughts…this is my 201st blog post!

Again, the week has gone quickly for me. I spent last weekend and the early part of the week in Colorado visiting my mom and sisters. Haven’t had the opportunity to do that in a long time, so it was good, but too short. Now, as this is Friday, and the next weekend is upon me, I am already planning my weekend activities, as well as those of next week.

Tomorrow, I will spend with my son and my mother-in-law who has recently come to live with us. We will travel a short distance (a little over an hour) to visit a Children’s Museum, do a little shopping, and have a lunch date. It will be good for all of us to get out, for my son to explore, imagine, and experiment with the many interactive displays and activities at The Clay Center, and for my MIL to see some more of the area.

I will also spend part of the weekend doing some writing in advance and preparing for the next lesson in my Empowerment Mentoring program, “World Famous”. I will be traveling next Thursday, for a week in Orlando with the John Maxwell Team (oh, how I love being with these amazing, energizing, up-lifting, encouraging, like-minded, growth-oriented people, literally from all over the world!). It will be a week of learning, reminiscing, growth, new experiences, deep reflection, and fellowship. It will be, easily, 12-14 hour days fully engaged; which is energizing and exhausting! Thankfully, my yoga program is portable and I can practice in my hotel room.

What’s on your list this weekend? Will you focus on you? Will you spend time with others? Exercise? Read? Write? Rest?

What do you need to do to set yourself up for success on Monday? And in the coming weeks?

However you spend it, I hope your weekend is satisfying and intentional.

“See” you Monday!

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Intentional Leadership — D2, W1, M8 — Change

When was the last time you really took a step back and reflected on where you are in your life and what’s going on around you? How much change is taking place? I encourage you to spend some time with your journal today, responding to these questions?

Over the past year, what has changed in your personal life?

For me, change has been significant over the past year, but mostly internally. My work seems to flow in waves, with peaks and valleys, and I adapt as necessary. Internally, however, change has been significant. I’ve been on an intensely-focused journey of self-discovery and clarification of my passion, purpose, vision, values, and beliefs. It’s been enlightening, refreshing, and liberating. I highly recommend it!

Over the past year, what changes have taken place within your industry?

Over the past year, what changes have you witnessed within your organization?

Within any one, or more, of these areas, has there been a change you resisted or challenged?

Why did you resist?

What was the outcome?

What was the cost to you of resisting?

Was there a change you welcomed and embraced?

Why did you embrace this change?

What benefits have you received as a result?

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W1, M8 — Change

In his book, the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell tells the story of Henry Ford and his leadership style. Truth be told, he wasn’t an effective leader, because he needed to be in control, thrived on keeping his staff uncomfortable and on-edge, and actively worked to undermine them and cause disruptions between members of his leadership team. Be that as it may, he did develop an automotive company that was, at one time, the dominant automaker in the US.

Well, Mr. Ford pioneered the assembly line, thus streamlining automotive manufacturing, significantly cutting the amount of time it took to build a car, which also lowered costs. He made the automobile an affordable transportation option for the masses, rather than a luxury item only a few could afford. However, as his competitors began to copy his assembly line and mass produced their own cars, Ford made a mis-step. You probably all remember one of the famous quotes attributed to him about one of his cars, something to the effect of: You can have it in any color you like, as long as it’s black! This was in response to the growing demand of his customers who wanted cars in different colors.

His thinking was sound in one respect: black paint dried the fastest and could be used more efficiently than other colors. He missed the boat in understanding and acknowledging what his customers wanted: variety! Other manufacturers were more than willing to paint their cars other colors, and consumers bought those instead of a Ford.

This is a clear example of having tunnel vision; Ford was so focused on moving towards efficiency, changing the way cars would be built even today, but he couldn’t move back to a less efficient process, a different direction if you will, even when doing so would have been very profitable for his business. This is the danger of becoming complacent.

Sometimes, when we have outpaced, out performed our competitors and tasted some level of success, it’s tempting to think that it’s “good enough” and we don’t have to continue striving to get better; this is an extremely dangerous mind-set and will surely lead to one’s downfall.

As they say, if we don’t learn from our mistakes we are doomed to repeat them. We should all be so wise as to study Ford’s leap to success and later to the back of the pack. It’s a lesson we shouldn’t repeat.

As a leader, it’s critical that we are in tune with what’s going on the marketplace, what’s changing in the minds of our customers and potential customers, to changes in technology, and especially to changes in thinking. If not, we will soon find ourselves at the back of the pack, and sometimes…it’s just not possible to recover from that position.

Take some time to think about a time when you ignored a necessary change and missed an opportunity. What was the situation? What signs did you ignore? What did you miss? How has that affected where you are today?

There is an assessment called the Kirton Adaptive-Innovative measure; it is designed to identify whether you are an innovator and maintainer (prefer the status quo, thank you very much!) or somewhere in between. It’s a revealing exercise to be sure. In the absence of having the opportunity to do this assessment right now, how would you honestly rank yourself in terms of your tendency to embrace change?

We’ll spend a lot more time with these thoughts this month.

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